Beginning next fall, Institute-funded graduate students will see an increase in their minimum stipend, from $12,000 to $14,500. This is the newest change to the graduate program at the Institute, which has undergone many changes over the past three years. According to Tom Apple, vice provost and dean of graduate education, these changes are aimed at recruiting more well-rounded students and bettering the reputation of the program.
Apple said that of the 1,100 students currently enrolled in the graduate program, 550 are fully supported by the Institute, having their entire tuition covered. Much of the remaining half are supported by external sources such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.
In addition to tuition, stipends are also paid to the students. The base amount of the stipend is currently $12,000, but the actual amount of the stipend is set by the different schools. This minimum has been increased by $2,500, requiring all schools to pay their graduate students a minimum of $14,500 per year while still giving the individual schools the opportunity to increase the amount as they see fit.
Apple also stated that this $2,500 increase, multiplied out over the graduate student population, amounts to a little under a $1 million difference in the budget for the graduate program. Because some schools already pay their students more than $12,000, the $2,500 increase does not apply to them in full.
This change in the graduate tuition policy, however, “has caused tension between a small but very vocal group of faculty,” Apple said. “This anger is coming from faculty who are forced to find external support,” Apple added.
Some may wonder if the increase in stipends is related to the increase in undergraduate tuition. Apple, however, stated that “it’s not an increase in pay for graduates at the cost of undergraduate students.”
Graduate Council President Wally Morris II said, the increase is “an excellent move in the right direction. It will go a long way toward helping students who are wholly supported by internal means.” He added that he was personally glad to see the increase and he hoped that the Institute could find ways “to continue this trend.”
Changes to the graduate program in previous years included an increase and restructuring of tuition. Apple said that prior to the increase, RPI had the lowest graduate tuition in the country. This was done “to make the graduate program self-supporting and money generating,” Apple said.
Documents provided by Apple showed that, the number of graduate students with external funds has increased from 218 in the fall 2002 semester to 332 in the fall 2004 semester. “We’re at the point now where half of our students are supported externally,” Apple stated, adding that this is evidence that the quality of research being done by RPI graduate students is better than in past years.
